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Re: Releasing the Queen

Gotcha. I wouldn't attach, just because I think they would end up making a mess of it if you didn't get it out soon. Life seems to get in the way of bee keeping, and things you intend to do in two days happen in two weeks. And I'm also on the lazy side.

If they didn't release her in a couple days you could free release her. They should be used to her at that point. After reading that Michael Bush free-releases queens with packages I'm thinking that isn't a bad way to go.

Re: Releasing the Queen

so I was talking to an old beekeeper tonight at our local meeting and he told me his way to direct release the Queen. He just pulls the plug and holds his finger over the hole then he holds the Queen cage up to the Hive opening and basically waits for her to be going the wrong way, moves his finger, and she will turn around and walk right into the hive since there's no other way to go she doesn't fly away. That was his way of direct release and he says he's never lost a queen yet...

It sounds pretty good and given the way my top bar is set up ( I have 1 inch holes for entrances) I plan to try this technique.

Re: Releasing the Queen

We had a speaker at our club last night and what he does is he has made a bigger 5 sided queen cage, about a half inch think and about 6x6 that he puts the queen under and then she is on comb, just push it in the comb a bit to stay in place. This way she can start to lay right away. I had never heard of that method before.